Inside the mind of a Pakistani General!

Daily Times, January 20, 2006
‘No changes to Iqbal’s tomb, VIPs can stay out’By Anjum Herald Gill

LAHORE: Punjab Archaeology Department has rejected Pakistan Rangers’ demand for more room in Allama Iqbal’s mausoleum, saying the provincial law did not allow changing the monument, sources told Daily Times on Thursday. The issue began when allegedly the Rangers director general (DG) had to wait outside the mausoleum during a visit by the Chinese premier and his wife, because there was no space left in the room. The grave’s onyx cenotaph presented by the Shah of Afghanistan has been built in a way that it could not be changed, leaving space for only three people to lay floral wreaths and pray. When President Musharraf visited the tomb in April 2001, he was told that the Rangers DG had to wait for the Chinese prime minister outside, and that the tomb needed an extension. The Archaeology Department made a committee thereafter, which suggested that the terrace, which is part of the main cenotaph, should be cut to make more room. The proposal was rejected. The committee then proposed making a covered area outside the mausoleum where a platform could be made to lay wreaths. Rangers authorities contacted the Archaeology Department to ask how much red sandstone they had to extend the building. They were told that the extension could not be made because it was against the law. “Mausoleums of Maulana Roomi, Hafiz Sherazi and Sheikh Saadi also have little room, and people pray outside it, ” sources said from the department said. “It is against the law to tamper with the monument.” When Iqbal died in 1938, the British government gave special permission for his burial outside the mosque. The mausoleum was designed by a three-member committee of prominent Muslims. Nizam of Hyderabad’s architect Zain Yar Jang was also invited for the purpose. The red sandstone burial chamber was completed in 1950.